Crumbs from the Master's Table

May 31, 2015

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said recently that his
labor coalition may not support Hillary Clinton if she backs the Trans-Pacific
Partnership agreement (TPP). [1]
Perhaps he is coming around to the realization that the Democratic Party isn’t
the American labor party after all. That, of course, is a truth that he should
have gathered long before the sitting Democratic president began to agitate for
passage of the TPP.

The problem has been organized labor’s approach to politics
lo these many decades. Instead of eschewing party loyalties and making the
major political parties tailor their platforms to gain the labor endorsement,
organized labor has been giving the Democratic Party its perennial guarantee of
support.

The result was predictable. The Republicans have come to
view unions as intractable foes to be destroyed, while the Democrats have taken
organized labor for granted to the extent that Democratic presidents actually
negotiate free trade agreements.

Organized labor’s awkward political position is exacerbated
by the fact that union representation has dwindled to just over 11% of American
workers. [2] If
present trends continue, neither of the major political parties will care if
organized labor supports them or not.

Forming a third party as a labor party is no answer, since
candidates for office in the United States usually only have to win a plurality
of votes to get elected. If an actual majority was required, third parties
could be more influential in those cases where they were able to prevent any
candidate from obtaining such a majority. But, in the American system,
candidates don’t need majorities to win elections.

Until some way is found to break the power of the major
political parties, organized labor will have to play in the ballpark in which
they find themselves. Fortunately, it is not without options.

One critical approach is to expand its membership beyond
those who have union representation in their place of work. This is already
being done by the AFL-CIO, which has opened “its doors to everyone, including
those who are between jobs or don't have unions at work,” by setting up “an
affiliate union - Working America - to focus on many of the same hot button
issues that unions do, including health care access, retirement security and
unemployment insurance benefits.” [3]
Like “other interest groups, the AFL-CIO can galvanize its newest members
almost instantly.” While members of Working America don’t “have collective
bargaining rights or the protections of the National Labor Relations Board,
members” do “have many of the same union benefits for $5 a year….” “Created ten
years ago,” Working America “now claims 3.2 million members—more than any of
the individual unions in the AFL-CIO, or any of the other ‘alt-labor’ groups
organizing and mobilizing non-union workers in the United States.” [4]
The potential political power of a group like this is both obvious and needed.

Another problem that the labor movement faces is the nature
of the Democratic Party. Not only is it increasingly apathetic to workers’
concerns, but it is dominated by secularists and the pro-abortion lobby. The
pro-choice position on abortion has become a litmus test for Democratic
presidential candidates. The problem with that is that it alienates many
working people, who often are very religious and very pro-life. The result is
that a good number of working people vote for Republican candidates, against their
own economic interests, but in accordance with their interests of conscience, a
phenomenon that is puzzling to the materialist Democratic overlords. This
situation can also affect union organizing, as workers, with much
justification, view unions as handmaids of the Democratic Party.

It would be in the interest of the labor movement to work to
rid the Democratic Party of this albatross, because, right now, labor’s choice
is between a party that is positively hostile to it and one that treats its
concerns as secondary. It would also be in the interest of the Democratic
Party, because if it wants to be the party of the working class it ought to
take care that it represents actual working people.

Richard Trumka’s warning to Hillary Clinton is a good first
step in asserting labor’s independence, which will be essential to regaining
its political influence. Once the labor movement can demonstrate that it can
deliver votes in the millions it will be in a better position to direct the
priorities of the Democratic Party, rather than satisfying itself with scraps
from the master’s table. Indeed, a powerful labor movement may even convince
the Republican Party to call a halt to its anti-labor rampage.